City’s historic churches inside Loop 410 facing hurdles

Peace Lutheran Church put its property on the market last year. Photo by Julysa Sosa

Drive inside Loop 410 and it’ll be easy to spot churches from another era.

They were built in the early to mid-1900s. Residents walked or drove a short way to attend. The churches were designed to serve neighborhoods. They were smaller than most newly built structures today, usually situated in newer suburbs or along highly visible and accessible roadways.

Here’s my story in today’s paper about a San Antonio congregation inside Loop 410, Peace Lutheran Church. The photos by staff photographer Julysa Sosa provide nice insight into what recent Sundays are like for this church that is now trying to sell its property and expects to close soon thereafter.

We visited the church service yesterday. It was a contrast to my visits to most thriving churches along our city’s “church row,” the colony of megachurches on the northern stretch of Loop 1604.

Eight folks showed up in a sanctuary able to hold more than 150. The flat roof from the 1960s-era architecture was unique. I got a tour of the Sunday school classrooms, which remain empty except for their use Sunday afternoons by the congregation that rents the church after Peace Lutheran wraps up.

I appreciated the willingness of the remaining church members to let me observe. It’s obviously not an enjoyable state to find themselves in after decades there.

Most church leaders from mainline denominations in San Antonio say that the pattern of declining churches inside Loop 410 is only going to continue. They are looking at solutions, rethinking ways to worship, but facing the unfortunate scenario of closing doors in the end.